Westland Lysander
The Lysander was introduced in 1938 as a replacement for existing R.A.F. army cooperation such as the Hawker Audax. Its designed featured advanced aerodynamic devices such as automatic slats and slotted flaps to give it good short field performance. A tall glass canopy with the pilot seated high up also improved field of view. Its performance in the army cooperation was apparently not a great success as large numbers were lost during the Battle of France. However the STOL capability of the aircraft soon gained it new importance as a special operations used for inserting and retrieving agents from occupied Europe using unprepared fields as landing grounds. The Lysander also served as a liaison aircraft and as a target tug. The Lysander and Biggles In Biggles Sweeps the Desert, a Westland Lysander in the liaison role carried a Group Captain from Headquarters to visit Biggles' squadron at Salima oasis towards the end of the story. In The Case of the Stolen Aircraft, a Westland Lysander was one of two aircraft which had been stolen from an R.A.F. training establishment by Merville Lucas Lutton mainly for its fuel. Since all British Lysanders were withdrawn by 1946, its appearance here might be somewhat anachronistic. In derivative works In the graphic novel Squadron Biggles, Biggles flew a Lysander to occupied France in order to retrieve a set of important blue prints. The use of the Lysander for missions such as this is historically accurate. In the original story, The Love Song, Biggles used a Spitfire, which which would have been much more difficult given the unknown and unprepared ground he had to land on. The adaptation also has Biggles shooting down a Messerschmitt with his Lysander. Again this is plausible as the Lysander had two Browning machine guns mounted in its wheel spats. In another derivative work, Le vol du Wallenstein (The Flight of the Wallenstein), Air Commodore Raymond obtained a Lysander for Biggles and his crew when they needed an aircraft for scouting the rough countryside and coastline of Western Scotland to search for signs of the Wallenstein. In the derivative work, L’Épée de Wotan, a Lysander is seen at an airshow in St. Omer which Biggles and co. were attending in the early part of the story. Specifications *Crew: Two *Length: 30 ft 6 in (9.29 m) *Wingspan: 50 ft 0 in (15.24 m) *Empty weight: 4,365 lb (1,984 kg) *Max. takeoff weight: 6,330 lb (2,877 kg) *Engine: 1 × Bristol Mercury or Perseus radial engine, 870-890 hp *Maximum speed: 212 mph (184 knots, 341 km/h) *Range: 600 miles (522 nmi, 966 km) *Service ceiling: 21,500 ft (6,550 m) *Armament **Two forward-firing .303 inch Browning machine guns in wheel fairings, two .303 inch Lewis, Vickers K or Browning guns for observer in rear cockpit (if fitted) **Four 20 lb (9 kg) bombs under rear fuselage and 500 lb (227 kg) of bombs on stub wings if fitted References Category:Aircraft Category:Actual aircraft Category:Aircraft which Biggles flew Category:Aircraft which Biggles flew (derivative works) Category:Aircraft (canonical works) Category:Aircraft (derivative works)